Teacher's Guide to Science Projects

The Teacher's Guide to Science Projects was developed to provide teachers with everything they need to assign, manage, and evaluate a science project program in the classroom, including lots of tips to make a science project a fun educational experience. While this guide was designed for teachers who have never assigned a science project, it also offers a variety of tools and tips that seasoned teachers will find useful. Some of the key elements included in the guide:

Benefits of a Science Project: An explanation of the benefits of doing a science project and how they map to the science education standards.

Teacher Timeline: Steps to help teachers guide students and plan additional activities.

Safety Guidelines: How and when teachers should review student science projects for safety concerns.

Student Science Project Schedule: A timeline for students to follow with reading and homework assignments.

A Parent Guide to Science Projects: A letter introducing parents to the science project, plus tips on how to effectively help a student on a project.

Download Science Fair Schedule Worksheet (Word doc):
This worksheet is a handy tool to help construct a schedule for science fair assignment due dates. In contrast to the timelines and schedules included in our Teacher's Guide to Science Projects, these worksheets are not tied directly to the resources in our online Science Project Guide and can be helpful for teachers who are planning a science project but might be using materials other than those provided on our website.

Science Fair Project Grading Rubrics

Grading rubrics are an important component of the science project to ensure that all projects are graded fairly and on the same fundamental concepts. Science Buddies has developed a set of teacher-vetted rubrics in PDF format for each step of the science project as detailed on the Science Buddies website. The rubrics cover:

Draft grading/judging rubric for computer science projects:
Computer science projects are a perfect fit for the interests of many students, but they don't really fit the model of the scientific method. This draft article explains the differences and provides guidelines for computer science projects. Please send us your comments.

Scientific Method Classroom Poster:
Our 36" x 20" classroom poster provides an overview of the six steps of the scientific method, as described on the Science Buddies website.
Anyone interested in printing their own copies may download the PDF.

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A Guide to Planning a Science Fair

Planning your school's science fair? New to the process or just looking for a more organized approach? We've developed the documents below to help you put on a successful science fair, from start to finish. The documents go hand in hand and offer many options that you can tailor to your school's fair.

A Guide to Planning a Science Fair (pdf) This step-by-step guide walks you through every step of planning your school science fair—from setting goals for the fair, to recruiting and training volunteers and judges, to announcing the winners. The companion judging documents are also referenced throughout and are available for download below.

Judging Guide (pdf) This guide includes an introduction to the teacher, as well as thorough instructions to print out for the judges' training on the day of the fair. Features include grade-level expectations, responsibilities, and scoring guidelines. This guide will also prepare them for using the Judging Scorecards below. After reviewing the descriptions below, select and print the scorecard that you feel is most appropriate for your students.

Judging Scorecard (pdf) This scorecard assumes students understand dependent, independent, and controlled variables. If this scorecard is the appropriate target for your fair, please print and hand out copies to the judges on the day of the fair.

Judging Scorecard: Engineering (pdf) This scorecard is designed to enable scoring of projects that follow the Engineering Design Process. If this scorecard is the appropriate target for some participants at your fair, please print and hand out copies to the judges on the day of the fair.

Judging Scorecard: Basic (pdf) This scorecard assumes students understand the concept of a fair test, but do not have knowledge of dependent, independent, and controlled variables. If this scorecard is the appropriate target for your fair, please print and hand out copies to the judges on the day of the fair.

Judging Scorecard: Elementary (pdf) This scorecard makes few assumptions about student knowledge. They should be able to follow the basic steps of an experiment and make observations to answer a question. Advanced students will be able to make measurements. If this scorecard is the appropriate target for your fair, please print and hand out copies to the judges on the day of the fair.

Project Tracking Spreadsheet Sample (xls) This spreadsheet includes a sample, as well as a template that can be modified and used to track your students' projects, from registration through the judging process.

*NEW* Classroom Activities

Science Buddies is now adapting some of our more popular project ideas into at-home, in-class, or after-school activities. Each activity comes with student instructions, and a facilitator guide with just enough information to help anyone lead a good discussion on the science behind the activity.

Plop, Plop, Fizz Fast: The Effect of Temperature on Reaction Time
Have you ever seen bubbles form when an Alka-Seltzer tablet is dropped into water? Have you wondered how the water's temperature affects how quickly those bubbles form? Find out using Alka-Seltzer tablets, jars or drinking glasses, ice cubes, and a stopwatch or timer.

Lifting with a Lever
How can you lift a heavy object without straining your muscles too much? Using the power of a lever is one way. See how levers make lifting easier by using one you create with a ruler, a pencil, and a plastic bag.

Can Nanotechnology Help Clean Up Oil Spills in Oceans and Seas? Try It Yourself with Ferrofluid
Scientists claim that a novel method combining nanotechnology and magnetism can help clean up oil spills in oceans and seas. Test the proposed technique yourself using ferromagnetic fluid, mineral oil, and a strong magnet. Will you succeed in separating oil from water?

Investigating Surface Tension with Paper Fish
What causes dew to form into drops on plants, water to bead on a waxed car, and bubbles to accumulate in soapy water? The answer is surface tension. Learn more about surface tension with a pan of water, some dishwashing liquid, and a paper fish.

Life Sciences

Measuring Heart Rate with Your Own Stethoscope
What happens to people's heart rates when they exercise? Measure another person's heart rate using a stethoscope you create with a cardboard tube, a funnel, and tape.

Ow, My Tummy Hurts! The Biology and Chemistry of Gas Relief
Have you ever felt bloated? It could be because too much gas was trapped in your digestive system. How do some drugs relieve trapped gas? Find out using soapy water, jars or drinking glasses, straws, and some crushed tablets of simethicone, one drug that speeds the body's release of trapped gas.

Memory to the Rescue: Investigating How the Immune Response Fights Infection
How does our immune system help keep us healthy? How do memory cells make the immune system work even better? Find out by modeling the immune system with magnets, iron filings, and salt.

What are the Odds? Modeling the Chances of Getting an Autoimmune Disease
Autoimmune diseases are fairly common, affecting more than 23.5 million people in the United States, or about 1 in 13 people. These diseases develop when a person's immune system attacks the person's own body by accident. Model how this can happen using M&M's® candies and a die.

Discovering the Colors Behind Afterimages
What happens when you stare at one color for a long time? Why do you see a certain afterimage? Discover why afterimages have certain colors by using a computer, a stopwatch or clock, and colored pencils.

How Does Gravity Affect Root Growth?
How do plants respond to gravity? See how gravity affects plant root growth using plant seeds, plastic ziplock bags, paper towels, and a large cardboard box or dark closet.

Modeling Blood Flow with Straws
What happens to the flow of blood when heart disease narrows a person's arteries? Create a model to illustrate the answer using straws, disposable cups, and colored water.

Stopping "Superbugs"
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, also called "superbugs," are so common in the United States that more than 2 million people get infected with them each year. One way antibiotic-resistant bacteria can flourish is when a patient cuts short their prescribed course of antibiotics. Model how this can happen using a large set of dice.

Earth Science

How Particles Affect Porosity
When we think of something hard and solid, we may often think of rocks. But in reality, rocks have tiny pockets of air inside them that, taken together, are called porosity. In this activity using beans, plastic cups, and a measuring cup, you will help students model how the particles making up a rock affect that rock's porosity.

Measuring Wind with Your Own Wind Meter
Wind can be a very powerful force, especially at high speeds. But just how much faster is a strong wind compared to a gentle breeze? Help your students measure wind speed using a wind meter (or anemometer) they create with paper cups, straws, a pencil, and a pin.

Cartography: Projecting the Globe on a Rectangular Map
As useful as flat world maps are, they are not the most accurate representation of Earth. Help your students examine distortions introduced when projecting Earth on a flat map using a balloon, a bottle cap, a permanent marker, scissors, a piece of cardboard, and some push pins.

Landslides: What Causes Rocks to Slip and Slide?
Landslides are powerful geological events that happen suddenly, striking fear in people who live near unstable hills, slopes, and cliffs. In this classroom activity using tape, pennies, a paper towel, and a clipboard, you will help students model landslides and investigate how friction and the angle of a hill's slope affects them.

Math

Coin Toss-up
If you toss a coin, there is a fifty-fifty chance it will land tails-side up. But what if you toss it five times, can you predict how often you'll get one tails and four heads versus three tails and two heads? In this activity, use a coin and some graph paper to explore how the accuracy of predictions is influenced by sample size.

Stopping "Superbugs"
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, also called "superbugs," are so common in the United States that more than 2 million people get infected with them each year. One way antibiotic-resistant bacteria can flourish is when a patient cuts short their prescribed course of antibiotics. Model how this can happen using a large set of dice.

Science Enrichment Tools: Encourage Science

Science Buddies wants you and your students to get the most out of the science fair project experience, and we're confident that these Science Project Enrichment Tools will help. Each tool features grade-level applicability, implementation instructions, and direct benefits for your students. Please visit each link, some of which include supplementary tools for you to download and print for use in your classroom.

Family Science Night: Show students and their families that science is fun! By setting up several science activities for everyone in the family, parents will experience the type of hands-on, inquiry-based learning that their children are receiving. This tool also fosters interaction between parents, teachers, and students.

Extra Credit: Boost science fair attendance by providing extra credit to students who bring a family member or mentor to the fair.

Science Fair Information Night: This tool goes hand in hand with the Science Buddies Teacher's Guide to Science Projects. Hold a Science Fair Information Night for parents at your school and present this dynamic PowerPoint presentation, which explains the process, goals, parent-teacher involvement, and student benefits.

In-Class Science Project: Employ scientific inquiry in your classroom by guiding students through a hands-on trial run of a single classroom science project before they tackle their own.

Black Box: Give students assignments related to their science projects, grade them according to set rubrics, and then offer students the chance to improve at each step.

Science Fair Passports: Organize a passport activity to increase fair attendance and encourage visiting students to enjoy learning from the fair, communicating with fair participants, and being inspired by their peers' projects.

Peer Review: Have students interview each other about their science fair projects to help them build confidence, enhance presentation skills, and learn to evaluate and implement feedback.

Project Clinic: Level the playing field for students who do not have access to knowledgeable mentors who can assist them in conceptualizing and completing their science projects.

You can find this page online at: http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/teacher_resources.shtml?From=Tab

You may print and distribute up to 200 copies of this document annually, at no charge, for personal and classroom educational use. When printing this document, you may NOT modify it in any way. For any other use, please contact Science Buddies.